IBM scientists cool down the world’s largest quantum-ready cryogenic concept system

Project Goldeneye pushes the limits of low-temperature refrigeration while laying the groundwork for the quantum industry’s ability to scale to larger experiments.

The super-fridge - internally known as project Goldeneye - is a proof-of-concept for a dilution refrigerator, capable of cooling future generations of quantum experiments. Today’s dilution refrigerators are limited in a number of ways: the size of the quantum physics experiments we can fit inside them; the number of input/output ports; their cooling power. 

Goldeneye is a testament to the fact that a small team of people armed with passion and dedication can move a seven-ton “mountain” of steel and electronics. The super-fridge contains 1.7 cubic meters’ worth of experimental volume, meaning it can cool a volume larger than three home kitchen refrigerators to temperatures colder than the outer space, versus previous fridges, which are in the range of 0.4-0.7 cubic meters.

These temperatures are required for performing state-of-the-art physics experiments and potentially running large quantum processors.

"Today, we’re excited to announce the culmination of Project Goldeneye’s mission: we successfully cooled it to operating temperature (~25 mK) and wired a quantum processor inside. Goldeneye will soon move to our IBM Quantum Computation Center in Poughkeepsie, NY, where the team will be exploring large scale cryogenic systems to best develop the cooling needs of tomorrow’s quantum data centers, such as the Bluefors Kide platform under development for use with IBM Quantum System Two. We hope that its innovative design, with an eye toward ease-of-use, will inspire the next generation of vacuum and low temperature refrigeration technologies," - said in company.

Read More